Old and new technological strategies to improve Jack beans quality and promote its utilization

Summary

The increasing world population drives up food demand, raising concerns about emissions and deforestation. Shifting towards sustainable food source is critical with legumes are being nutrient-rich and recommended by the EAT-Lancet. Despite numerous legumes available, only a few are popular. Conversely, underutilized legumes, Jack bean, is potential as protein sources, hindered mainly by long cooking times and poor digestibility. This thesis investigates the possible explanations of different optimal cooking times in Jack bean, explore freeze-thawing as a method to reduce cooking times and assess its nutritional quality through various processing techniques, including fungal fermentation. The research reveals that freeze-thawing and fermentation can enhance Jack beans’ digestibility and nutritional quality, potentially aiding in improving plant protein digestibility, particularly in resource-constrained settings. This finding encourages further exploration into the impact of processing on nutritional value of underutilized legumes, paving a way to enhance the utilization of plant-based proteins.